Secret life of lotto rapist

BY ANY measure Edward Putman’s decision to claim state benefi ts after scooping a National Lottery jackpot was not the smartest. A quick check of his finances by investigators revealed that the 47-year-old, whose numbers came up three years ago, was a multi-millionaire. He had made two payments, totalling almost £5million, the size of his win, into a bank that specialises in wealth management.

Edward Putman on a holiday in Cyprus in 1999 Edward Putman on a holiday in Cyprus in 1999

This week a court heard how the former labourer’s scam backfired when he aroused suspicion by paying £83,000 in cash to buy his council house. It emerged that he had already bought another home and a fleet of cars. Putman, who requested no publicity after his numbers were drawn, hoped that he would somehow slip under the radar. However, as he begins a nine-month jail term for fraud, the lottery winner now finds himself in the spotlight he was determined to avoid. For it has also emerged during the case that Putman is a former rapist who attacked his victim when she was pregnant.

The lottery windfall gave him the opportunity of a fresh start but he has been disowned by family members and as we discovered this week appalled neighbours with his arrogant “do-as-I-please” attitude. Condemned by a judge for “greed that defies belief”, the case also raises the issue of whether criminals should be allowed to keep lottery winnings.

Neighbours never liked Edward Putman. After he was jailed for claiming benefits despite a jackpot win and then revealed as a sex attacker, they now know why

Barely a year after hitting the jackpot Putman told benefits officials that he was on the brink of destitution. He wrote that he had no money for food, was facing eviction from his home and was reliant on the goodwill of a handful of friends for his survival. Putman claimed he was selling off his few meagre possessions to help pay for food and feared for his health. It was designed to pull on the heart strings but it was all a pack of lies, St Albans Crown Court heard.

The land around his £600,000 detached four-bedroom riverside home in Kings Langley, Herts, resembled a motor lot, littered with vehicles including BMW sports cars. He’s also said to own another property worth more than £400,000 a few miles down the road. Amazingly he received £13,000 benefits in a period lasting 20 months before his cheating was exposed. At the time, interest payments alone on his fortune were more than £10,000 a month.

Edward Putman is the youngest of 10 siblings whose father, Arthur, committed suicide by throwing himself under a train. After leaving school when he was 16 he muddled along, doing building jobs but in 1993 was convicted of breaking into a house and raping a 17-year-old woman in Milton Keynes. Also accused of intimidating witnesses, he served four years of a seven-year sentence but it seemed his fortunes had changed when he became rich beyond his wildest dreams in 2009.

Another rapist faced compensation claims from his victims after winning the National Lottery, so Putman had every reason to try to keep a low profile. However after so many years struggling to make ends meet he couldn’t resist flashing his cash. His big weakness was cars… and lots of them. According to neighbours there were up to 50 at his home in Kings Langley, which also has a mobile home in the garden.

“He wanted to develop the land behind the property but when he couldn’t get planning permission he turned the place into a car lot,” says one. “The place is a complete eyesore.

He told people that his money came from property developing. No one had any inkling that he was a lottery winner. To be honest, no one in the village wanted anything to do with him.

“He’s not a pleasant man but just did what he wanted. Let’s put it this way, he’s never going to be a candidate for neighbour of the year.”

It’s an opinion shared by some family members, who also had no idea that Putman was a lottery millionaire.

He’s described as a bully who is a heavy drinker and prone to fits of violence. He has also been convicted of wounding with intent in a case from the mid-Eighties when a neighbour in another area was attacked.

“Eddy comes across as a charmer but he is really a Jekyll and Hyde character,” says one female relative.

“He’s won millions and it couldn’t have happened to a less deserving person. He is an absolute monster.”

His former partner Gail Vincent, 51, claims she was abused by Putman who refused to pay any child maintenance for their son. Like all the others, she learned of his wealth only when he appeared in court. She’s said: “He paid less than £200 in maintenance in 12 years, although for seven or eight of those he was in prison. I can’t begin to tell you what I think about his win. He should give the money back or pay compensation.”

MS VINCENT, who was in court last week, smiled as Putnam was sentenced.

Judge Andrew Bright QC told him the letters he wrote to obtain benefits just 10 months after winning the lottery were “as calculated a piece of deception as anyone could imagine”.

He added: “It was greed on a scale which, frankly, defies belief, especially in an economic climate when welfare budgets are being cut and those who are properly entitled are struggling to make ends meet.”

Prosecutor Hita Mashru told the court: “Records show that in the days after winning the lottery he bought sports cars and a house. It’s very calculating.”

Putman, who was flanked by bodyguards, tried to conceal his face under his hood as he arrived at court where he admitted fraud by falsely claiming housing benefit and income support. The conviction and case could pave the way for a legal claim by Putman’s rape victim for a share of his winnings. Before the attack she was his partner and pregnant with his child when she was raped.

She has said: “I received £4,000 in criminal injuries compensation but it didn’t make up for what happened. He made me go through the ordeal of giving evidence. He is a brazen psychopath. There was no remorse, no shame. I’d like to see him penniless. It’s not about the money, it is the principle.”

HER child is now 25 but she claims they have never received support from Putman.

She added: “Finding out that he won the National Lottery is like some kind of sick joke. I will absolutely be claiming for compensation and will be consulting lawyers. This is the worst kind of karma – for him to be fabulously rich and living it up.”

Recounting the attack, she said in an interview: “He punched my head so hard I thought it would cave in. Then he raped me.

“Afterwards he sat on the bed and said, ‘Oh my God. I know what I’ve just done’. I patronised him to get him to leave and said, ‘You’re just drunk. Go home’. He went down the stairs but then came up and did it again.”

After he was jailed this week Putman instructed his solicitor to issue an apology and pointed out that he had repaid the money he received in state handouts.

As far as many who know him are concerned, it’s a hollow gesture.

THE OTHER MONSTER WHO MADE MILLIONS

THE National Lottery’s most controversial winner is Iorworth Hoare, who was serving a life sentence for attempted rape when he scooped £7million.

Hoare, then 52, was on release from Leyhill open prison, in Gloucestershire when he bought his winning ticket, in 2004. Under Home Office guidelines, prisoners on temporary release from jail are allowed to play the lottery and can claim a winning prize.

Since then he has found himself hounded and recently had to move out of his £700,000 mansion in the North-east after death threats were daubed on the fence.

Hoare, who was originally from Leeds, was jailed in 1989 for attempted rape. He was also jailed several times for a string of sex attacks during the Seventies and Eighties and received a seven-year sentence for rape in 1983.

In total he has spent 30 years in jail.

After details of his win emerged he faced compensation claims from his victims, and a retired teacher later won an out-of-court settlement.

In 2008, Hoare tried to get access to his fortune so he could leave the country and set up home in France.

However he was restricted to £8,666 a month as part of the conditions of his release.

Three years ago former Justice Secretary Jack Straw came up with a scheme to confiscate windfalls of violent criminals who then win the lottery but it was scrapped by the current Government.

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